Our Morning Basket {Time with God}

I've mentioned before that Bible study with the kids has been a struggle the entire school year.  I started with the best intentions and have tried many times to make Bible Study Guide For All Ages work with the kids, but there is too much of a gap in their ages.  Angel is very interested, Lovebug plays along out of responsibility, and my little Sunshine tends to make things ... well, just plain difficult.  We have good days and bad while working through the lessons but a lot of the time, I end up totally frustrated ... which is bad.  It seems like the enemy wins the battle on many days.  It just wasn't working well given their different attention spans and academic levels.

So I finally had an idea a few weeks ago that I think is working for us.  And this idea could actually work for any family, homeschooling or not.  Partly based on reading about a Morning Basket over at Inspired to Action, partly inspired by Date With God at Created 4 Care, and partly because of attending Together Called, our very own Morning Basket was born.  The kids are much happier to participate with this kind of devotion versus the more formal lessons I was trying before.  In many ways, I prefer the formal lessons because it's more systematic and complete, but I am happy to work with this for now.  What's important is that they have their time with God, not necessarily how it happens.

There are a variety of devotional books for kids so they have a choice each day, as well as an Adventure Bible to look up verses, several other books (I'll outline them below), and a few Sunshine-proof board books.  Some of these books were purchased just for our basket, others we already had.  I realize our basket has a lot of different books and that certainly isn't needed, but I know my kids like variety :-)  I also included our Prayer Sticks, journals for the older kids, and crayons.  I may add a "journal" for Sunshine also because she has really enjoyed drawing during this time.  They pick their own devotional book in the morning, find the verse in the Bible, and then write/draw in their journal afterward.  I'll also pick from one of the other books to read or pray ... still working that out but I just adore having this time with the kids!  It's very much mommy-led at this point and I am totally fine with that.  I love sharing God's Word with my children and consider it such a gift.  Jesus' love and grace for us is the most important life lesson I could possibly pass onto them, and what an honor it is to do that!

Here's what's in our Morning Basket:

Adventure Bible
Angel's Journal - storytelling pages with lines for writing and open space for drawing
Lovebug's Journal - unruled notebook just for drawing (I write the Bible verse of the day on top of each page)
Jesus Calling for Kids - dated daily devotional
One Year Devotions for Preschoolers - dated daily devotional
My ABC Bible Bible Verses - alphabetic devotional with short stories
His Mighty Warrior - devotional for warrior boys
His Little Princess - devotional for princess girls
Children's Everyday Bible - dated daily devotional
Sticky Situations 2 - dated family devotional using everyday situations
Window on the World - outlining all the countries around the world and how your family can pray for them (LOVE!)
Usborne Children's Picture Atlas - to go along with Window on the World
Children's Adoration Prayer Book - learning to adore God using the alphabet
A Child's Book of Character Building - teaching Christian character using Bible stories
Lift-the-Flap Bible - board book perfect for toddlers
Tiny Bear's Bible - another board book for my little Sunshine
Noah Builds an Ark - another board book for variety
Our Prayer Sticks
Crayons, pencils, pens

I'd love to hear how you do Bible study and devotions with your kiddos too!  And if you've blogged about it, please share links in the comments!